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Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler (nee Beale) was a character on the UK soap opera, EastEnders. She was played by the late actress Wendy Richard, from the series debut in 1985 until the character's death in 2006. She's led a hard life. Pauline was one of the original 23 characters of EastEnders when the series first aired in 1985. She is the fraternal twin sister of market trader, Pete Beale, who ran the family-owned fruit and vegetable stall in the square's open air market. The twins were close, even though she knew that Pete was her mother's favorite. Her other siblings included, Kenny, who lived in New Zealand; Ronnie and Harry, both deceased, and two sisters, Dora, and Maggie Flaherty, an Irish woman revealed to be Pauline's sister. She was married to the loutish Arthur Fowler, a continually unemployed and befuddled man, whose main happiness was when he was digging in his beloved allotments. At the outset of the show, the Fowlers had two teen-aged children, Mark and Michelle, with a child on the way. She would later give birth to her youngest son, Martin. Martin is the current owner of the fruit and vegetable stall. Her children would later have children of their own, the most notable being Michelle's son, Mark, Jr; Mark's half-sister, Vicki; and Martin's oldest daughter, Bex. She would also be considered the adopted grandmother of Martin's children by Stacey Slater, Lily Fowler and Arthur Fowler (named after her late husband) and Hope Fowler. Pauline also considered Lisa Fowler's daughter, Louise, as her granddaughter, although her last name was Mitchell. She had been named after her late mother. However, Louise was Mark's legal daughter (as Mark was married to Lisa at that time). It was revealed that Pauline had lived at 45 Albert Square all her life, raising her family in the house she herself had been raised in (her parents had moved into the house renting it from the Walford council. She married Arthur in 1965. She had been slated to be bridesmaid at her sister, Dora's wedding, but she caught the flu. Arthur, an old friend from school, was allowed to visit her, and he proposed marriage to cheer her up. She also had her widowed mother, Lou Beale, living with her. Most of her stories have her dealing with drudgery, family and money issues. Pauline worked long hours at the local launderette with her long-time friend, Dot Cotton. Dot was also friends with Lou. A very protective woman, sometimes to the point of being over-protective and borderline interfering, Pauline would not tolerate anyone going after her family. When she discovered that pub landlord, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) had impregnated her daughter, Michelle (his daughter, Sharon Watts was her best friend), and was revealed to be the father of her daughter, Vicki, Pauline slapped him soundly in the face! One of the classic stories had Arthur have an affair with Christine Hewitt, a suburban lady who had taken a fancy to him after he took a gardening job for her. Pauline was in New Zealand, caring for Kenny, who had been in a bad automobile accident. This affair which had taken place while she had been out of the country, had Pauline up in arms. She and Arthur had a fierce row about it, which culminated in her hitting him in the back of the head with a frying pan! She also lobbed a television set at Arthur as well. After a time though, she would forgive him. After Lou died, Pauline became the matriarch of the family and the area. As the role continued, she became more of a battle-axe, especially with the women who latched themselves to her sons, Mark and Martin. She also feuded with long-time resident, Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor), their animosity stemming from Peggy's vicious gossip mongering concerning Mark contracting HIV (from his late first wife, Gill). This infuriated Pauline and she and Peggy feuded and fussed from that moment on, with Pauline slapping Peggy numerous times over the years. After Arthur died of a brain aneurism in 1996 due to a head injury he suffered whilst in prison, Pauline was often seen with many other men. A man named Jeff Healy would propose to her, but she humiliated him publicly in the Vic. She would fall for a school mate named Derek, but it was more of a platonic relationship than anything else as he revealed that he was gay. He however provided a much-needed male influence in the Fowler home for a time. She would eventually remarry a man named Joe Macer. Joe and Pauline had several rows (mainly over her continual interfering in everyone's lives and her attachment to Arthur) and one of them would lead to Joe hitting Pauline with a pan. The effects of that attack would be shown later on! After a furious row with her son Martin's wife, Sonia, in which the fight would shatter the famous Fowler Fruit Bowl, Pauline would go out into the square, and she would fall to the ground. She died in 2006 due to her brain drowning in its own blood, and her body was cremated and her ashes spread next to her late husband, Arthur. Sonia had been charged with her death, as she had been the last one fighting with her, but it was later revealed that Joe's hitting her with the pan caused the cerebral hemmorage that killed her. Joe himself would later die as a result of him falling out of the window of the Branning home. He had been confronting Dot when he fell out of the window and landed hard on the square. Twenty years after she had left Walford, Michelle would return to take her mother's place as the matriarch of the Fowler family. She carries on the same iron-willed traditions that her mother and grandmother instilled in her. She had returned on Christmas of 2016, and after a few road bumps, which she would have to gain forgiveness from Martin, Ian and Sharon (over an illegal romance that would cause her to lose her job as a teacher in the states as well as demolish her marriage and alienate her from her son, Mark, Jr.), she would later become ensconced into her old hometown and the life of the community once again. However, she would leave Walford again in 2018 (Jenna Russell who played Michelle had agreed to be written off due to a lack of storyline) after realizing that the square would only remember her as a woman who seduced a seventeen year old male (however, it was HE who had made the first move, not Michelle) and she would make an extended visit to Australia to see her daughter, Vicki and her long-time partner, Spencer Moon, as well as doing her share of traveling to clear her head, and only then once that was accomplished, she would perhaps return to Walford.. The one who is now being credited as being the glue that holds the Fowler family together is Pauline's granddaughter, Rebecca, called Bex. She possesses the same strength and courage, tempered with a lot of kindness, that the rest of the Fowler women possess. Category:EastEnders characters